The frame of an automotive vehicle supports an operator's compartment and includes a roof supported by generally vertical members commonly referred to as pillars. For some vehicles, the roof is normally supported by front and rear pillars, also known as the “A” and “B” pillars. Other vehicle configurations can include front and rear pillars with a support pillar between the front and rear pillars, in which case the front and rear pillars would be referred to as the “A” and “C” pillars and the intermediate pillar would be the “B” pillar. The frame of the vehicle is required to withstand certain forces relating to roof strength of the vehicle. Those roof strength standards help determine the configuration of the vehicle frame. Automotive vehicles are often designed with an operator's compartment that includes a rear passenger seat and a set of rear doors that can be hinged on the rear pillars to provide an open span between the front and rear pillars when the front and rear doors are opened, or mounted on the intermediate pillar for opening in the same direction as the front doors.
These different frame configurations have a direct impact on the design of the frame components of the automobile. The longer the unsupported open span, such as can be found on some pick-up trucks where the rear door hinges on the rear “B” pillar, the greater the challenge to support the load that must be transferred into the frame components to meet roof strength requirements. The longer unsupported roof spans also, consequentially, increase the moment applied to the base of the rear pillar of the operator's cab in vehicles, such as pick-up trucks.
The known design strategy for the frame components forming the body side construction of an automotive vehicle is to manufacture these components through stamping and bending of sheet metal to form the individual frame components with a generally uniform cross-section that is consistent with these known manufacturing processes. The size and shape of the cross-sectional configuration of the respective individual component is dictated by the strength required at the highest load point asserted on that individual component. Efforts have been made over the years to modify the shape of the cross-section and the thickness of the sheet metal in attempts to maintain the requisite strength parameters while reducing the weight of the respective frame components, and thus the cost of production thereof. Nevertheless, maintaining the generally uniform size and shape of the individual frame component results in a part or component that weighs more than required to carry the load.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a body side construction for automobiles that can be tailored to correspond to the load encountered by the individual frame components by varying the cross-sectional size and/or shape as appropriate to carry the load distribution imposed thereon.